Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

2 Ideas for turning a simple melody into a great sounding lead! Guitar Lesson – EP605

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn how to take the melody from the song, “Ain’t She Sweet” and embellish it in your lead using 2 simple ideas. If you’ve ever wondered how musicians do that when improvising, you’ll love this lesson!

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

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Comments

  3. slopace says

    Sweet lesson Brian. You always give us great pointers on how to do our own compositions. Since I’ve been following you I have learned more than I’ve ever dreamed of being able to do and in such a short time. I love how you repeat ideas from lesson to lesson to really drive it into our brains where we don’t have to be a monkey see, monkey do. Im blown away how far I’ve advanced since signing up!

  4. Robert Burlin says

    Great lesson Brian. Could you add the basic melody to this? It would be very helpful the be able to play just the melody, If you do more lessons like this please add the original melody. Maybe do one of Jerry’s tunes like this, and please show the melody too.

  7. Bill says

    Love these old tunes. Interesting chord progressions, hummable melody, and a swinging feel. This lesson brings up a great point that I’ve been noticing as I delve deeper into the Western Swing world: how many solos basically restate the melody with embellishments or seriously quote it. I guess it’s like the composer already came up with something really catchy, don’t reinvent the wheel!
    Thanks for another memorable lesson!

  11. Joe S says

    I love your lessons. I always feel like I’m sitting down with a good friend on Friday nights. This is a great lesson that will take a while to absorb. I always enjoy when you go off topic and share your thoughts or reasoning for why you did it the way you did. I’m blessed that you have brought me along with you on your musical journey.

  14. Daniel H says

    Brian its great how you back reference previous lessons, like EP549 in this lesson. Its a good reminder to practice techniques we might not have visited in a while. Especially when they’re techniques that really belong in our vocabulary. Good lesson.

  18. Peter R says

    I really enjoyed this one, it comes at a good time as I really needed some distraction from the developments in the world. I need some me more practice walking up and down the major scale the way you did.

  19. Robert R says

    I like the personal insights you give. Like how humbled you are by other players. We all need to enjoy the ride and stop comparing ourselves needlessly (as being better or worse). Not just the guitar but in life.

  21. Ann N says

    What a great lesson, especially getting into the second part of it. I saw Nitty Gritty Dirt Band last night in Savannah and was sitting in the 3rd row so I could watch what the rhythm and lead guitars were doing and I so understand it so much more after having done so many of your lessons for the past couple of years. I am 75 and have been playing since I was 14 but mainly chords and some embellishment by ear but never “understood” it and you have finally helped me to understand where this is going to learn the fretboard and the patterns. Thanks and I always look forward to the next lesson.

    • Nick P says

      Just to say I’m about the same as you Ann – 75 this year, started when i was 13, played chords all my life but over the last 7 years Brian has led me into lead stuff and I’ve really made progress. There’s something new every week – my only frustration is I just can’t find the time to practice all the good stuff! How did I ever find the time for work 😆

  24. Bill B says

    Great lesson Brian, I’ve been working on chord melody techniques and having trouble filling the spaces between the melody notes and chords. This lesson points out some options I didn’t consider.
    Thanks!!

  25. Georg B says

    Hello Brian,
    This new lesson, like all your lessons, is full of great value. Thank you for the structured way you present your content. Perfect! It finally makes clear what has been a mystery to me in music for decades.
    I can well imagine that you are more than busy preparing these lessons every week. In addition, there are the countless comments to read. And on top of that, your family and everyday life also demand time and energy. I fully understand that this will probably mean you won’t be able to start any new projects. At some point one reaches the limits of capacity.
    Nevertheless, I would like to share an idea with you that crossed my mind when I was looking at your latest lesson. Sometimes I write down a few bullet points about a lesson, my personal “guitar grammar”, if you will. For example, in a lesson from a long time ago, namely lesson ep 358, I wrote down where diminished chords come into play as transition chords. The structure of your contents that you give your ActiveMelody members is similar to that of good language learning, I think. Very helpful. For example, how is a certain chord structured and where can it be used. It’s the same with language learning. How do I form a sentence? And where do I use it sensibly? Anyway, I assume that you have something like a script or screenplay for each of your lessons, at least in your mind. These scripts contain these principles that you illustrate with your songs. There are so many guitar textbooks and so much guitar literature out there, but I don’t know a single one that uses your approach. I could imagine that a guitar booklet or textbook of yours containing these principles could be a real bestseller. In your latest lesson, for example, I wrote down which of the chromatic notes sound best, i.e. those between the second and third degrees and between the fifth and sixth degrees.
    Perhaps one day you’ll publish a textbook like this. Of course, it is best to watch your lessons.
    Best regards,
    Georg

    • Peter E says

      I have often thought as Georg does about this. IMO this is indeed like learning language. One lesson teaches some vocabulary, and then the next one teaches some grammar and tenses. They don’t have to come in any particular order, just like language. These materials might be digitally based. So, for example, when the student comes to the Gdim7 part of this lesson, there is a hover over a optional link to a bigger lesson on diminished chords. I learned to love dim’s on this channel!
      I REALLY LIKE the way Brian often tells the students what his point is, so you can zero in on on the most important aspects of the lesson.

  26. Eric2015 says

    As usual, Brian, another amazing lesson.
    I love that you introduced taking a known melody and showing us your method of improvising over it.
    It was fabulous.

    I can easily follow and understand all your reasoning of how you build your beautiful melodies, which is a great talent all in itself.
    Unfortunately, I lack the musicality to even improvise a tune in my head, before I even get near my guitar.
    I put it down to never really having a serious interest in music as a kid. Nevertheless I keep trying.

    I hope you never stop producing these lessons.
    They are easily the best online lessons ever, and much valued.
    Thank you.

  27. Robert G says

    Hi, Brian,
    This is a great lesson! Thanks for taking the concept and explaining it with a simple, old time song that’s familiar. I’m thinking that this would be especially effective with music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries like “Sweet Bunch of Daisies” or “A Bicycle Built for Two”, that genre, old standards that eveybody’s familiar with. Those tunes are just built for this type of fun.
    Take care.

  30. Peter E says

    Two good takeaways, and one great one:
    Good:
    1. Chromatic licks.
    2. Using the notes of the scale and the chord (arpeggios) to improvise with.
    Great:
    Practicing a scale, but not hovering on the same scale degrees. This REALLY helps me (a) develop new melodies while staying in key; and (b) get a feel for different modes!
    Thank you!

  33. Jackie L says

    Hi Brian, I just want to say that you are absolutely brilliant. Your delivery of information is done in such a wonderful, understandable way! The way you are able to relay the pieces parts of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it is so very helpful. You were born to teach and you have such a gracious manner about you.

    I am so grateful that I’ve landed upon your stuff. You’re helping me immensely and, your selections are fun. I listen to you play something in the beginning of a video and then I go through the part one, part two. and the PDF and when I can finally do it myself to some degree I feel like I’ve accomplished climbing a mountain…. thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you do.

  36. Nelson K says

    An EXCELLENT lesson. I signed up for Active Melody because I liked how you improvised on the melody of “‘Oh When the Saints Go Marching In”. I really appreciate you teaching us the approach to doing this type of improv. This lesson is the ultimate “teach a man to fish” approach (and you’re giving us some fish too). I need to keep learning melodies and applying these concepts. Thanks for the amazing lesson Brian…Kudos!

  38. Kevin L says

    Brian
    Very helpful lesson. Is there a rule for knowing where to start a scale run? Or do you plan it to end on like the five chord as in this case? Thanks.
    Anybody else have an idea?

  40. Ronald S says

    Brian,

    An outstanding lesson! Great use of chromatic notes to embellish the major scale. Thanks for again reinforcing the concept of combining the major scale with pentatonic scales and applying the ideas to different areas of the fretboard! This will help to build my improv skills.

    Ron S.

  42. Bernard B says

    Brian -I really appreciate this lesson. I love the old melodic standards. Improvising doesn’t come easy to me but this lesson is really helpful. What would you do with sweet Georgia Brown – and old tune I love?

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